Misery sho’ does love company!  Both GB and I agreed that if we hadn’t been meeting each other this morning, both of us would have wimped out in favour of activities that involved staying in the warm and dry.  In his case that would have meant staying bed.  Being at least partially insane, I’d have gone to the gym.  As it is, both of us could be found in the Square in the rain at 8:30am wondering who’s idea it had been.  Sadly the fault is all mine.  Mea culpa and all that.

GB was route master and led us out on a zig zag route designed to avoid as much of the strong gusty NE wind as possible, as well as wet gritty down hills.  Yes – if you hadn’t gathered already, it was wet, windy and, as my feet were soon to bear testament, cold!  Naturally in those conditions there was nothing for it other than to visit the seaside.  There was always the vain hope that normal sensible people would not be visiting Weston in such conditions and it would therefore be bearable to cycle through and, to be fair, it wasn’t bad.  The last field on the left in Uphill was covered with bluebells – I believe the cliched way of describing it would be to say carpeted with them – which was the visual highlight of the day.   Which reminds me, it must be time to do the annual Ebbor Gorge walk.

So, it was pretty much the normal seaside loop.  Having set off so early we were too early for coffee stops anywhere, opting instead just to get the ride over and done with really.  I was clearly a little under-dressed for the conditions since otherwise my feet might have stayed with me.  I sure am glad I opted for longs though, and the windproof top did the trick.  And, thanks to good company, I didn’t feel miserable which I’m fairly sure I would have done on my own.  The actual mechanics of the ride were pretty good – the bike was still feeling very smooth, me, my legs and my lungs were feeling pretty much in tune, and it was still nicer to be out on the bike than not to be, if that makes any sense 🙂

Cycling time: 1:58:17
Distance: 29.67 miles
Avs: 15.0 mph
ODO: 4078 miles

I’ve been back for 20 minutes or so, and I can just about wiggle my toes now.  Methinks it’s time for a nice warm bath to go with my nice warm cup of tea 🙂

Make that soaked to the skin…  GW and I went for a ride today, in the rain.  Well, it wasn’t raining when we set out, but it was by the time we got to Wedmore, and from thereon in it was pretty much set in.  We went straight over to Glastonbury, across the Levels, for a coffee and back.

Cycling time: 1:47:16
Distance: 28.39 miles
Avs: 15.8 mph
ODO: 4048 miles

As you can see, we weren’t hanging around too much.  Well, you don’t when the weather’s like that!  It was a good ride though – nice and fast and smooth.  With good coffee and a good natter.  Can’t be bad 🙂

And, since I was soaked through by the time I got back, I washed the bike in the rain as I figured I couldn’t get any wetter!  Still, it may have been wet but it wasn’t really cold.  I’m glad I wasn’t wearing my shiny summer shoes though, and I still think my bolero arms are one of my best purchases ever as they kept me warm even with the rain and head wind chill factor.

I’m very good I am.  I know, you’re looking at my stats thinking there’s nothing that unusual about them, aren’t you?  Well, let me enlighten you as to my route, and then you’ll see why I’m feeling so proud of myself…

Cycling time: 2:33:20
Distance: 38.88 miles
Avs: 15.1 mph
ODO: 4020 miles

First off I went up Shipham Hill which, again, went really well.  Slightly faster than last time if anything.  I went at a fairly steady pace up to the top, engaging the quarry lorries in one-sided conversations that, on balance, it’s just as well they couldn’t hear…  I took the extra wiggle up and over Rowberrow, and then swooped down to the Churchill traffic lights.  I took the usual little detour before getting back to the main road and taking the right up Burrington Coombe.  Cue more pottering, with plenty of time to admire the wind tunnel effect in certain places, amongst other things.

Like  why badgers haven’t learnt to cross the road better – they need a Gumbie Cat – because they’re clearly very bad at it, as you can smell from a mile off now that the weather is warmer.  And for quite a long time when you’re going by slowly…  *ick*.

And like why Burrington Coombe is THE way to get to Wells – something which I always forget – and the traffic did its usual job of narrowly avoiding me with rather too little margin for my liking, due to the lack of visibility up there…

So, I turned off, headed down through Compton Martin to West Harptree, where something very inconsiderately stung me on the neck.  Not sure what, and it doesn’t seem to have left much of a mark, but it didn’t half hurt for a bit.  I headed down that way because I wanted to do the whole upwards A39 slog from Chewton Mendip to Wells, which I duly did.  Slowly again.  But not as slowly as it has been known to be done.

I crested the top, waved at Romulus and Remus, and enjoyed the long fabulous down to Wells.  I was trying to do it without braking, but my nerve was broken by the very large yellow artic that followed me for a while.  Some of you may know how I feel about going downhill with traffic behind me…  Still, once he was past, I enjoyed the rest of it to the best of my limited ability 😛

From there life got a lot flatter – I just came straight home at speed, from Wells to Wedmore, to Cheddar, and home.  There wasn’t a lot of wind, and that which there was was from the south, which made the last drag up Upper New Road much nicer than usual.

The whole route is here, if you be interested.  It was a very lovely ride.  I didn’t find any of it too hard, spent a lot of time hurtling along down on the drops generally enjoying myself, and, as an added bonus, sun-tanning as I went along.

Oh, and have you seen my average speed?  All things considered…I rock *grin*.

The sun is all very well – and it is lovely – but I do wish it would get a tad warmer to go with it.  Yet again today it was decidedly chilly on the bike – and it wasn’t until being well on the way home, with the sun much higher in the sky, that it hit a decent temperature.

Today’s ride was a pretty direct one.  Over to Portishead for coffee at my folks’ place and back.  GW’s idea – and a darned good one at that.  We got over to there at an average speed of 16.0mph, so we must have slowed down a tad on the way back as we wiggled around the back roads from Clapton, which probably just means we were chatting more 🙂

Cycling time: 2:35:17
Distance: 40.78 miles
Avs: 15.7 mph
ODO: 3981 miles

As ever, I had to work keep up with GW, but I don’t think I was finding it as hard as it sometimes is.  I blame the new tyres – they’re still indescribably better.  I’m really enjoying riding at the moment, it just feels good to be out there 🙂

The sun comes out, the cyclists come out, and so do the bugs.  Darn things have been hatching all over the place.  Every now and then a cloud of them sort of pebble dash you as you go through, hopefully with your mouth closed.  Extra protein not required thank you very much.

Mind you, as it wasn’t that warm, at least my tops were all zipped up, thus avoiding the usual bug relocation scheme that tends to operate otherwise.  You’d be amazed how many can hitch a ride inside a sports bra…  Anyway I digress…

It’s nigh on impossible to find daytime cycling company during the week these days, so I headed out on my own this morning, intending on doing a 50 miler.  I did have a route planned, which I stuck to as far as the other side of Winscombe Hill.  But then the right turn on Max Mill Lane looked attractive…and from thereon in I was pretty much winging it, or making it up on the fly at least.   (Note – another reference to insects…cor, ain’t it clever how it all ties together? 😉 ).

I headed across to nearly Banwell and along to Loxton from there, which is a nice up and downy kind of a road.  From Loxton I headed towards Mark, but decided that I’d take a detour on the way and go up and over Brent Knoll.  Well, if GB can do it, so can I.  OK, that doesn’t always hold true, but in this case… I hadn’t been that way for ages, and it wasn’t as bad as I remembered it either – result 🙂  I crossed over the A38 to head back past Mark, and then towards Burtle.  Again, I failed to stay en route as I then decided to take a wiggle to go along and up to Edington, and head to Shapwick from there.  Shapwick to Ashcott, and around the peat workings to Glastonbury, where the road is very wiggly, very newly smooth, and very nearly had me all over it when I misjudged a bend…*gulp*.  That’s one way to raise the heart rate…

I took  the main route option to get me from Glastonbury to Wells as the road surface on the back route always does my head in.  Once out the otherside I stopped off in Wookey where I prevailed upon hubby for a couple of mouthfuls of coffee before heading back via the hill out of Wookey Hole.  Again, and possibly aided by the caffeine, it wasn’t too bad.  OK, so I didn’t go up the hill proper past Ebbor Gorge, but hey, who needs that kind of pain?  And that was a rhetorical question, so no replies please! *grin*.

I rejoined the A371 at Easton for a bit and took the left just before Rodney Stoke to zip across the flats, and come back along the Wedmore straight.  I was then seized by an urge to see the reservoir, so MiG one bugged out and headed for home around it.

Cycling time: 3:16:52
Distance: 49.84 miles
Avs: 15.1 mph
ODO: 3940 miles

Darn close to 50 miles no?  I should have cycled around town for a couple of minutes – and probably would have done if I’d realised – very sad I know.  I’ve just plotted the route on bikely and it even looks relatively unflat.  Probably not a bad training ride then.  It was pretty windy – from the North West – so even with the sun, it wasn’t exactly toasty.  Put it this way – my arms stayed on, my zips stayed up, and I was always pleased to emerge from the shade.

The new tyres are still making it all feel that bit smoother, but the back wheel was feeling a tad odd coming back into town when hit by cross winds – skittish and a bit sideways as if it had locked up when it hadn’t, so I may have to have a look at that. I need to take a look at the tyre pressure too – they’re hard as rocks, which is a tad unforgiving when it comes to the current state of the roads!

I’m going away for the weekend, I haven’t packed, but the sun is shining…  Yep, time for a ride.  First time I’ve been able to get on the bike since the Ride It due to Easter holiday constraints (roll on Monday!).

To make it all even more exciting, I decided to wear my new summer shoes again.  They’re essentially white.  And my tyres are black.  But no, wait, I have shiny new white striped tyres!  Well…everyone knows how important it is to be co-ordinated on the road.  My pit crew leapt into action, and changed them over forthwith.  I’d have helped, but he’s way quicker and better at it than I am, and besides which, I painted my fingernails last night 😉

Cycling time: 2:05:04
Distance: 33.41 miles
Avs: 16.0 mph
ODO: 3890 miles

I did my usual kind of loop thus putting the wind pretty much equally ahead of and behind me – and as you can see, I go much faster when my kit matches *grin*.  The new tyres did actually feel much smoother.  And I was feeling pretty smooth too – shorts and mitts, short base layer under windproof layer – all just right.  I could easily stayed out longer but, as I said, places to go, people to see 🙂

I would have blogged this ride yesterday, but the site was down, so it was not to be.  But it be back up again now…

Not that it was a particularly noteworthy ride.  Well, I suppose the fact that my legs came out of hiding for the first time this season is worth a mention.  I still have cyclist’s stripe from last year and made a fair start at adding this year’s layer.

Cycling time: 1:40:20
Distance: 27.93 miles
Avs: 16.6 mph
ODO: 3761 miles

All I did was zig zag around the Levels in the sunshine, avoiding gradient, basically making sure the bike was feeling ok after its service, ready for tomorrow’s event.  I was also trying to work out what layers I am likely to need and so on.  I think I’ve got it sorted, but only time will tell.   It’s due to be a bit cooler and a bit windier, but I think I might still get away with shorts.  They’re way more comfortable than my (falling apart) longs so if I can, that would be good.

So, another ride done.  Best get on with packing then…  GB kindly reminded me that SPF cream might be a good idea so I’d best go dig it out.

I’ve had as much energy as a limp piece of spaghetti for the last couple of days.  It’s been all I can do to stay awake, let alone do anything active.  So as you can imagine, I was somewhat apprehensive as to how today’s ride might go.

I met Bob Fleming in the Square at 9.00am.  The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, the route was out of my hands.  I’ve had worse starts to a ride.

We did a variation on a seaside loop, and checked out a new coffee stop at The New Castle in Kewstoke, due to GB’s reluctance to leave his bike anywhere that he can’t actually see whilst he’s drinking his coffee.  Yes – I was actually out with GB who, courtesy of illness and a smiley cat, has been coughing for a week.  Which does mean that I always knew where he was.  Coughing cyclists make me laugh – there we are trying to convince the world that we’re super fit and healthy…coughing and spluttering all the way *grin*.

The outward session was mostly into the wind – always best that way round – and included games of dodge the grockle in Berrow/Brean and WSM .  There were a fair few eejots on the road too, though perhaps fewer than you might expect on a sunny Easter Sunday.  GB tends to get quite vexed by such behaviour and gesticulate or shout accordingly.  I tend more towards suggestions that such drivers might like to go forth and procreate somewhere else, in anglosaxon…whilst maintaining a precautionary distance 😉

After a very nice cappuccino, and a long discussion about what criteria should be used to measure coffee stops for comparison purposes, the chilly wind was in our favour – taking our average speed up from 14.9 to 15.6 overall – as we were blown home via Puxton.

Cycling time: 2:36:22
Distance: 40.74 miles
Avs: 15.6 mph
ODO: 3733 miles

Although it was dry out, I cleaned the bike when I got back in since it’s going to see Paul for a check-up on Tuesday and it seems rude to take him a dirty bike.  Not that I haven’t done it before, but still…

I’m also feeling a bit more positive about next weekend now, with two rides done since my holiday.  However I’m not going to get out much this week – darned Easter holidays!  So, am I up to 90 miles?  I’m thinking that will very much depend on the weather…  I’m mainly looking forward to catching up with a couple of L2P folk who are doing it too, and that can as easily be done over 60 miles as 90! *grin*

Getting behind here.  This was actually Thursday.  Which of course, would explain why I haven’t got the hang of it.  I had no intentions of riding as the forecast was lousy…but when I woke up the sun was out, and it would have been silly not to go out, especially when you consider what the weather has been like recently.  Hubby confirmed, from the top of the Mendips, that it was nice, sunny, and not windy.  Note to self – do not ask man in metal box on wheels what the wind is like.  Especially when that wind would be behind him anyway…

I did my usual training loop.  Having been away, and being a bit out of sorts, I decided to take it easy on myself and just get round it my way, which I duly did.  I didn’t push or hurtle, I just got on with it.

Cycling time: 1:56:54
Distance: 28.97 miles
Avs: 14.8 mph
ODO: 3693 miles

An uneventful ride, but relatively enjoyable, bar the wind, which I seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time slugging into.  It was very clear out, and Hinkley Point was twinkling away nicely in the sunshine…I wonder if that’s something to do with isotopes…